Mobile communication devices have become ubiquitous in our society. Unlike conventional stationary devices, which typically operate in a home or office and receive data and information delivered via a wire and enjoy a highly consistent transmission medium, mobile devices are subjected to use under varying environments which result in a highly varying quality of service for various content to the end user. One challenge to those designing mobile devices is to design the devices to provide the desired quality of service even when the user is using the device in challenging and changing radio environments. Further, wireless network operators also want the users of their network to use mobile devices that provide adequate quality of service in all radio environments to ensure that the user has a satisfactory experience using their wireless network. Thus, there are numerous parties who desire to test the quality of service provided by mobile devices.
There are, however, a wide variety of mobile devices used for communicating over wireless data networks. With the proliferation of mobile devices, many designs have evolved. The different designs of mobile devices result in different performance characteristics for each device. Various design characteristics may impact the quality of services provided by a device and its ability to provide communications in varying radio environments. For example, the radio front-end of a mobile device, which drives, in part, the radiated performance (a devices ability to receive and transmit radio signals) of the device may positively or negatively impact the quality of service in various radio environments. Another factor may be the device's capability to cancel interfering radio signals from wanted radio signals in order to increase the signal-to-noise ratio and thereby improve the quality of service. Other design factors include (a) the performance of the device's digital signal processor, (b) the design of the device's operating system, (c) the content to be viewed by the user and associated applications including the handling of TCP/IP communication. As a result, the many different mobile devices have varying performance characteristics due to their design. Thus, different devices operating in the same radio environment provide different qualities of services.
In addition, another challenge to testing mobile devices is how to comparatively evaluate different model devices across different locations, at different times, in some instances using different people, and under the differing radio conditions present in live mobile networks. Thus, there is a need to objectively determine the quality of service provided by different mobile devices in receiving and presenting (outputting) different content types wherein the testing may be performed by different people in varying environments and at different times. These and other needs may be provided by one or more embodiments of the present invention.